South African Dealer Says $50 Million Pink Diamond Lost

A South African diamond trader is complaining that a 50.66 ct. pink diamond he has stored with shipper Malca Amit has vanished, according to news reports.

Geneva authorities are now investigating the disappearance of the stone, worth a reported $50 million, according to Swiss TV channel RTS, and in March searched the shipper’s Swiss premises.

Sylla Moussa, head of Johannesburg-based Sylla Diamond International (SDI), reportedly claimed he placed the diamond with Malca Amit’s storage in 2007. But he alleges that when he tried to collect it last year, he was told it was transferred to a South African businessman without his consent.

“I have been in Geneva for six months, and I will not leave until I have found my diamond,” Moussa said, according to the news channel.

A Malca Amit press release confirmed the diamond was transferred but said that Moussa was a party to it.

“Moussa is understood to have defaulted on a debt and relinquished possession and ownership of the diamond to his creditor, Moti Abbas,” the release said. “At that time, Moussa came to Malca Amit in Geneva and personally delivered the diamond to Abbas, in the presence of witnesses. Abbas then tendered the diamond to Malca Amit for storage, this time under his name.”

It calls Moussa’s demand that the diamond be returned to him “unfounded and unsubstantiated.”

“Moussa had not been the party storing the diamond since 2008; he was unauthorized to issue any instructions concerning it,” the release continued.